Just another homeschooling day

One of our days in pictures-

 

Home Economics

 

Music Appreciation- History

 

Home Economics and History

 

Private Study of the Bass Guitar

Specialized Painting Technique Intensive

Taste Appreciation

Shop Class with an Elder Mentor  Gpa!

Drying Ski Gloves

So with 5 winter sports people in this family we are ending up with lots and lotsa wet gloves. I was going a leetle bit crwazy trying to figure out how to get these dry. The dryer does.not.work. We have a boot dryer you plug in but I need like 10 of them to be effective...not gonna happen. So~

I'm sure I am not the first person to think of this but I didn't see this idea on google or pinterest so then it's like practically my own idea right?

Take these-

Oh you don't know what those are? PVC leftovers from making agility equipment. Either use yours or buy some cheap PVC at the hardware and cut it up into 2-3 inch chunks work best.

Do this-

{Stick pipe into folded back glove}

Then this-

Leave over forced air heat vent overnight and you should have some nice dry gloves by morning. 

It is a MUST that you train your family to do this and not just throw them waded up into the bottom of the ski bag or something...they never dry out that way. 
Do this right away when you arrive home from your sporting, your warm dry hands will be glad you did.

Happy Healthy Home's Swedish Meatballs

Not a professional photographer and just an inexpensive camera but we are lucky to have a picture for you before this yummy goodness disappeared! 

After recently, FINALLY, visiting IKEA and tasting their meatballs-  it was time to make some homemade Swedish Meatballs. I've made this off and on over the years but never really had the right taste, good yes but not quite what I wanted. So today I combined 2 recipes and it turned out great! So here's what I did-

Swedish Meatballs-
2 lbs. ground chuck (or 1 lb. beef/1 lb. pork sausage I don't do this, might try it sometime)
1 large sweet onion
2 Tbsp. butter
4 slices bread, broken into pieces
2/3 cup milk
2 eggs
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. allspice

To begin- Pour 2/3 cup milk into 4 cup bowl, add the bread pieces, toss with fork to let the bread soak up the milk. Set aside.


Chop up onion very small, then saute in 2 tbsp. butter. Set aside to cool. 

Add meat, bread, eggs, salt, pepper, allspice and onions to food processor. Blend until well combined. (yes this is messy to clean up but a necessary step!)

Use a 1 tbsp. cookie scoop to scoop your meat out and then roll meatballs. I like to do all my scooping first and put the balls on the pan. Then I go back over the pan and hand roll each ball making it nice and round. It can be helpful to line your baking sheet with aluminum foil for easier clean up.


Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes, until nice and browned. 


Gravy-
6 Tbsp. butter
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
2 cups beef stock (I use my homemade premade I keep in the freezer - could use as much as 2-4 cups here as desired)
1 cup sour cream


Melt butter in pan add in flour and salt making a nice roux. Let it bubble and brown just a bit, slowly add in the beef stock making a nice gravy. Feel free to add more or less stock depending on how thick or thin you want your sauce. Turn to warm and stir in the sour cream. 


Served with mashed potatoes and lingonberries the only thing you are missing from IKEA is the little Swedish flag in your meatball! And I think these may be a tad healthier too, being homemade.


Meatballs can be made up ahead in large batches and frozen for this meal, dippin' in ketchup, crockpot with ketchup/grape jelly sauce, for meatball subs, spaghetti and meatballs etc... Really quick meal if you can keep some of these stocked in your freezer!

Christmas Elves

Before the Elves fly back to the North Pole {aka basement storage} I need to share just how busy they kept us the rest of December.
They were quite a handful but loads of fun for us all. Here’s to hoping they might come again next year!

Just hanging out~

Playing with blocks~ Naughty Simon! Caging up helpless Elmer.

Simon getting into the brownies, tying up Elmer in Christmas lights! Naughty Naughty.

Just fishin’ ~


Sharing a magazine. Sharing? Well, isn’t that nice Simon. Finally.

Playing with the birthday girl’s birthday gifts!

How embarrassing Elmer can’t watch~

SIMON!! Started opening presents?!! Wow. Just wow.
  Elmer says, “ya shouldn’t have done that Simon!”
Awww a sweet moment…Uncle Rock reading the two elves a Christmas story!

And then right back to the shenanigan’s~

A little arts and crafts, tracing their hands craft to pass the time …

And this on Christmas Morning~ Hey, at least they brought Root Beer!

Christmas fun for the dogs! Doggie Gift Basket #ILoveMyk9

What a hoot it is watching our guest Pooch, Tyler and Tilda play. They are keeping us quite amused.

Tyler found Tilda's new bone right away. The two shared a few words over that and so we thought it best to put Tilda's special bone away and give Tyler his doggie gift basket pronto!

Kellie had it all organized and nicely wrapped for him.

 Lots of yummy goodies and fun toys...enough to share Tilda thinks!

The dogs are loving the treats and here is how Kellie wrapped the Milk-Bones® Bones. Tilda enjoyed the unwrapping part!

The toys were a hit and the pooches loved the treats! The Milo's Kitchen were the yummiest...{not that any of us humans would really know} But, they sure smelled the best and in a pinch, I'm telling you if there was not a crumb of food in the house, a person could really eat them. Allison, our dog nutrition expert here is pleased with the healthier ingredients in the Milo's Kitchen treats. And the Pup-peroni is "not bad either" she says. Tilda and Tyler have no idea what Al's talking about...they LOVE them all!!

When Allison is training Tilda for agility, she definitely needs to have some super yummy treats to keep up the interest but does not want to fill Tilda up with a bunch of junk food either. These are a nice new healthy alternative to have on hand! 

Milo's Kitchen
Pup-peroni 

Tyler is all festive~

Tricks for Treats~

 
This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #Cbias #ILoveMyk9 All opinions are my own.

Christmas Doggie Gift Basket #ILoveMyk9

Pooches need some Christmas gifts too, and the kids and I had a great time shopping our local Walmart for our Christmas doggie guest. Tyler! Tyler and Tilda has a nice ring to it and I tell you those 2 dogs have a blast together! Tyler loves to antagonize Tilda and she has enough "puppy" still in her to love wrestling and playing rough with him. 

We checked out the Milk-Bone® products, Milk-Bone® is a staple, a classic for dogs since well, FOREVER. We definitely needed some of these for our gift basket. Allison was on it figuring out which variety had her "nutrition approval". 

We also found Pup-peroni  which just has the cutest sound to it. And Allison was happy to find a new to us brand Milo's Kitchen. 


While the Milk-Bone® bones were not terrible ingredients, nor the Pup-peroni, the Milo's Kitchen was by far the most natural and healthiest going by the ingredient list. 


So we purchased several treats for Tyler and he'll get to share with Tilda too of course. Maybe they will have a "tasting party" for New Year's. 


We also found a great selection of toys and other dog related products at Walmart. From brushes to shampoo to toys to beds and bowls, Walmart had everything a new dog would need and more. {I'm not sure the clothing line for dogs would really be classified under "need".} :-)

We found some fun items and Kellie is going to be organizing and wrapping for Tyler. I think he'll have enough treats to share, we may make up a few small gift bags for the other pooches in our lives! {and there are quite a few actually...Buddy, Gracie, Chip, Charlie, Phoebe, Remy, Toby...}

Check back soon to see how the gift basket came together and see Tyler's reaction to his Christmas gift! :-)


You can see all the pictures from our shopping trip HERE.




This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #Cbias  #ILoveMyk9 All opinions are my own.

Elf Sightings!! #elfontheshelf

Our little elves Simon and Elmer have been BUSY, I've managed to catch their antics on camera...every morning they are frozen in place but at night they do all sorts of activities!

Simon thought he'd "help" with my knitting...thank you very much. no.

Simon helping himself to the Trader Joe's cookies and not sharing with Elmer. 

One morning Kellie found them playing with KNIVES and cutting up food!

Can you believe this? Messing with the kids stockings!

Snow {Rice} Angels

Another day~ they were "borrowing" Kellie's ski's!

Seriously? Yes, they really went too far. They TP'd our tree! Those naughty, naughty Elves!

Oh no, they weren't done yet...ever since Simon arrived on the scene Elmer's gotten dragged into all sorts of mischief and then this happened to him~

And today we woke up to this~ drinking Root beer in the pantry! And again Simon doesn't seem to be sharing. {sigh}

These are some busy elves! I hear they don't leave until Christmas comes, I think we are still in for some shenanigans!

Pinecone Tree Christmas Craft

I was inspired from a photo I saw online so Kellie and I set off to create our own Pinecone Christmas Trees.

First it involved another walk on the road and I thought Allison was going to call the cops on me as I crossed a "no trespassing" line to grab a few pinecones on the ground. So far so good though, I'm still here so maybe she's showing me a little grace or she realized if I'm in the slammer she'll have to do some cooking...anyways here is what we made~

Here is what you will need:
Clay pots- ($1.37 size at Hobby Lobby)
Ribbon- (buy half price at Hobby Lobby)
Spanish Moss- Green ($4.99 at Hobby Lobby and forget to use your 40% off coupon)
Pinecones- (Free for finding- unless your daughter calls the cops on you, then of course   you'll need a lawyer and other various fees will incur)
White Acrylic Paint
Sponge

Here is what you do:
Take a piece of sponge and dip in your paint and sponge on some white paint to your pot. {I guess this could be optional but it really gives the pot a nice look rather than just a plain ol' clay pot}

Then fill the pot with the Spanish Moss {warning! Messy!}

Oh, here is a helpful tip. Try to keep the Elf out of the moss.

Then add your pinecone "tree" to the pot.


To adhere the ribbon to the pot I used Elmer's Glue Spots.

That Elf REALLY likes to help out. The Elmer's Glue Spots were just what I needed to get that ribbon where I needed it. 

I'm not really sure why but when I came home with my pinecones I put them on a cookie sheet with parchment paper and put them in the oven at 250 for just a bit. {Maybe to get my fingerprints off or something?} Just in case any little critters had taken up residence...think I read that over here at The Mom Hood.
Anyhow~ heating them up produced a very fragrant pine-coney smell. AND these pinecones started leaking their sap a little...it has made them a little glittery-ish in person. {a little hard to see in the photos} But I LOVE the look...they glisten just a little bit. Oooo shiney!